Our new co-edited (me, Mark Dyer and Antonella Passani) special issue of Urban Planning is finally out. It includes a compelling collection of papers dealing with the role of social innovators in urban planning and design.
The concept of digital social innovation (DSI) refers to a fast-growing set of initiatives aimed at providing innovative solutions to social problems and needs by deploying the potential of the social web and digital media. Despite having been often interpreted as synonymous with digitally enhanced social innovation, we explain here why, in consideration of its epistemological and socio-political potentialities, we understand it as an interdisciplinary set of practices able to interpret and support the changes of a society that is more and more intrinsically virtual and physical at the same time. In our editorial paper, we briefly discuss how DSI processes can be functionally mobilized in support of different socio-political projects, ranging from the mainstream neoliberal to the revolutionary ones. Eventually, we provide a synopsis of the articles included in this thematic issue, by aggregating them accordingly to the main stakeholders promoting the DSI projects, being more bottom-up oriented or more institutional-based.
Dowload the Editorial here
Dowload the full special issue “The City of Digital Social Innovators” here
Table of Contents
The City of Digital Social Innovators
Chiara Certomà, Mark Dyer and Antonella Passani
Chiara Certomà
- Urban Narrative: Computational Linguistic Interpretation of Large Format Public Participation for Urban Infrastructure
Mark Dyer , Min-Hsien Weng, Shaoqun Wu, Tomás García Ferrari and Rachel Dyer
- Designing for Inclusivity: Platforms of Protest and Participation
Michael Leyshon and Matthew Rogers
- Public Perception of Urban Air Quality Using Volunteered Geographic Information Services
Sonja Grossberndt , Philipp Schneider , Hai-Ying Liu, Mirjam F. Fredriksen , Nuria Castell , Panagiota Syropoulou and Alena Bartoňová
- Digital Social Innovation and the Adoption of #PlanTech: The Case of Coventry City Council
Ciaran Devlin
- Innovators in Urban China: Makerspaces and Marginality with Impact
Monique Bolli
- Smart Villagers as Actors of Digital Social Innovation in Rural Areas
Nicole Zerrer and Ariane Sept
- Challenges of Urban Living Labs towards the Future of Local Innovation
Aksel Ersoy and Ellen van Bueren
Chiara Certomà 
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